LONG BLOG

Another EVO is in the books, ladies and gentlemen! Oh man, we have witnessed a lot of memorable moments in the tournament. We've seen insane comebacks, perfects, and even bracket resets. Man, we've done it FGC. We really did it.

I don't want to make this blog mostly about myself, but I gotta say that watching EVO 2016 on ESPN2 regained what was lost from me, and that is my fighting spirit. Let me explain myself why...

At the end of last month, I left my retail job because I wanted to move on to bigger and better things. When I left, I felt empty and I kept questioning myself "What is my purpose for playing?" During my Tuesday's sessions, I got bodied hard in Street Fighter V, Tekken Tag 2, and DOA5 Last Round because I kept using moves without having a reason why. You can say that I was seriously playing on tilt, and I barely practiced because my spirit was lost. I fell into three types of emotions: Anger, Madness, and The Hole for the past couple of weeks. Yep, I spent a lot of time listening to Tech N9ne's music, mostly based on emotion and depression.

But when I saw the DOA Festival, my spirit slowly started coming back. Then when it came to EVO 2016, it went back up in full force because I saw things that made me proud not only as a gamer, but also as a member of the FGC. And I couldn't be any more happier to witness all of this live.

Every match I've seen on Street Fighter V, Hungrybox's redemption in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Chris G's well-deserved victory in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Machabo's rise to victory in Guilty Gear, and SonicFox's third EVO win in a row made it clear to me that we want to show every non-fighting game fan and every non-gamer how we do competition. Oh my god man, it was amazing. Especially when after Infiltration won, he said "Download Complete" at the end. Yo, I got mad hype after that.

Now I did expect a lot of comments from jocks and other people that were hating on EVO because to them, it was just people playing video games. Of course they will say stuff like "Video games are for nerds. Get a life", and my all-time favorite: "I come home to see these virgins with no life playing video games on TV". But you know what I gotta say about all of that?

Let me also just say this: Street Fighter V had a rocky start back in February, but you cannot deny how much effort that Capcom made to get this game in the tournament scene in the best way possible. Hell, they made a stage for the Capcom Pro Tour with the EVO logo in the background. That goes the same for other games as well such as Tekken, DOA, Smash, and KOF. This isn't about which fighting game is better than the other, it's all about the community coming together and showing everyone why we love our game. And it's like I said: how can you get better at the game if you don't enjoy it? Always support your community no matter what game it is. Don't worry about the naysayers who say that video games are a waste of time and that you won't get anywhere in life because of that. Dude, own that shit.

As for myself, I finally found a purpose right after watching EVO. I always loved the fighting game scene, and I will do my best on here as a writer to bring the personal experiences of what it's like to be part of this community to the casual audiences and non-gamers out there. On top of that, I will do whatever it takes to go to Japan next year for the Dead or Alive Festival and compete in my first international tournament. Win or lose, I gotta give it my all, never care about what other people think of me, and never give up. Speaking of which, I need to prepare for Summer Jam X in August starting right now.

We came a long way from playing fighting games in the arcades, basements, and garages, to hotel ballrooms, and now convention centers and the big stage such as Mandalay Bay. To the FGC, we did it. We made this happen. We broke social barriers like no other man before. We are all competitive gamers in the end, no matter what game we play.

As I end this blog, I have one thing to say that applies not only to competitive gamers, but also in life: Never give up no matter how bad the situation is.